McClelland & Stewart is the publishing house that serves as the home for the likes of Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen and others. In 2000, under the direction of building magnate Avie Bennett, it was broken apart and sold to the University of Toronto and to Random House Canada. It’s now entirely owned by a foreign company.

Elaine Dewar, author of the new book The Handover, joins us to explain the seeming sleight-of-hand that put this institution in foreign hands.

Avie Bennett died this past weekend at the age of 89.